Semyon Budyonny

Semyon Budyonny (25 April 1883-26 October 1973), also known as Simeon Budenny or Semen Budyenny, was a Marshal of the Soviet Union who fought in World War I, the Russian Civil War, Polish-Soviet War, and World War II.

Biography
Semyon Budyonny was born on 25 April 1883 in Platovskaya, Don Host Oblast, in the Russian Empire (present-day Proletarsky District, Rostov Oblast, Russia) to a Russian family originally from Voronezh. Budyonny grew up in a poor Cossack region, and in 1903 he was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army after being a farm laborer. He served with the dragoons during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, and gained his first fighting experience fighting against Japan in Korea. He became the senior non-commissioned officer of the Seversky 18th Dragoon Regiment in 1914 at the start of World War I after serving as a cavalry officer between the two wars, and in 1916 he was transferred to the Caucasus after fighting the German Empire to now fight against the Ottoman Empire.

Given the St. George Cross 4th Class for his service in World War I, and in 1917 he became one of the radical generals of the Caucasian troops who became the commander of Red Army troops. Budyonny took over the Soviet 1st Cavalry Army and fought against Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, who were breakaway republics from the region, as well as the White Army. In 1920 he became a commander of Soviet forces in Poland and fought in the Polish-Soviet War against Josef Pilsudski's Polish forces at the Battle of Warsaw, among other engagements. He also assisted in the conquest in the Ukrainian National Republic during the war, and crushed Szymon Petlyura's Ukrainian nationalist forces.

Budyonny became commander of the North Caucasian Military District after the Russian Civil War, and in 1935 he was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union, the highest title in the Red Army. After the 1938 Great Purge, only Budyonny and Kliment Voroshilov remained as the original Marshals of the Soviet Union, with the other three being killed by Josef Stalin and the Cheka. In July 1941, a month after Nazi Germany's invasion of the USSR during Operation Barbarossa in World War II, he was appointed commander-in-chief of Soviet forces in the "Southwestern Direction". He defended Kiev against the Germans, but lost 1,500,000 Soviet troops dead or captured, a disaster for the Red Army. Semyon Timoshenko replaced Budyonny in September due to his failure at Kiev, and from May to August 1942 he was the commander of the North Caucasus Front. He ended the war as a Hero of the Soviet Union, despite the blame being put on him for many of Stalin's greatest defeats, and died in 1973.